Howdy, previous owners unfortunately painted the sash windows shut. Particularly annoying in the bathroom where ventilation helps indeed. What is the best way to approach this? Call in someone or is there is way to do it myself - no particular skills present, just 10 years or so worth of diy. Getting fleeced by the plumber recently makes me wary of calling in the next workman...
Fred
Parts available from
Christian.
Keeping a firm hold on the sash cord and lowering the weight gently, not letting it crash down inside the box and watching the sash cord disappear through the pulley hole.
Colin Bignell
And I forget to mention taking the access panels off so that you can attach the new cord to the weights.
Christian.
I prefer a paint scraper and light hammer blows.
Or pull the rope down fully and pin it to the frame.
It's a bit of 'how long is a piece of string' question.
The windows may be perfect, and merely jammed with paint. Others have said how to fix this. I use the thin flexible scraper and hammer approach, as a knife may not get deep enough.
More likely they're in poor condition. They may be screwed up tight before painting - look for clues. Some of the wood could be rotten or worn. The sash weights could also be missing.
I clamp it with Mole grips.
Running a knife between sliding sash and frame will usually do it. Dont use a stanley, the blade is too short and too stiff, meaning it winds up at the wrong angle damaging the wood. A cheapo wallpapering knife is more suitable, but the blade is weak so you have to make lots of passes not too hard, gradually cutting in.
In a lot of cases that will do it. Sometimes though there are other problems too. The list below is only necessary if there are much bigger problems.
NT
In message , Christian McArdle writes
Any particular reason for the 'natural', I used unnatural on the last one I did and it's been fine to date.
It doesn't stretch so much, doesn't suffer from UV damage so much and is easier to tie. Apart from that it looks much better, particularly in a period property. However, using nylon certainly isn't a disaster. It should work fine.
Christian.
I used some synthetic cored stuff which looks like ordinary sash cord on the outside, although slightly thicker. Bought it over 25 years ago, and non has broken since. But I'm not sure of the life of the 'proper' stuff. It was pretty expensive, though.
Knots on it do have more of a tendency to slip if untreated, but I gave it a good blast with a hot air gun after tying them, and that seemed to 'set' the synthetic core.
Check out
Hi fred
I have restored all of my down stairs sash windows and they look awesome now, its been a long job but well worth it.
Check out the following website:
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If you go this route mention my name and I may get a discount on my next order!!! :)
Cheers!
Richard
UV stability. The other trick is to slip a natural sleeve over a synthetic core.
That's pretty well what mine are.
No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver,purple
bumph, syringe, pilfer, burble.
NT
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